On January 26^th, the Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball teams swept their counterparts from the University of Iowa.  The men played at Iowa City while the women’s game was in Lincoln.

I watched the men’s game on TV but had to resort to listening to the second half of the women’s game on radio.  I usually don’t write much about games that I don’t actually watch in person, as I comment more on the atmosphere of the game than I do the actual playing of the game.  The game atmosphere is hard to pick up from a TV or radio broadcast.  However, I will make a few comments in general.

The men badly needed a victory, or at least a good effort, after the lopsided loss to Ohio State on January 21.  They came through by coming from behind to beat the University of Iowa 79-73.  Brandon Richardson had the best game of his career by scoring 25 points.

Meanwhile, the Nebraska women had to fend off a late charging Iowa team but managed to hold on for a 60-53 victory.  Alliance’s Jordan Hooper recorded another double-double with 22 points and 15 rebounds.

Karol, two friends, and I had attended a women’s game in Lincoln for the first time back on January 15.  I wanted a first hand look at the players, especially Nebraska high school graduates, Jordan Hooper from Alliance and Emily Cady from Seward.

The game was a little disorientating at first because we sat on the opposite side of the Devaney Center from our men’s seats.  In addition, the teams sit on different ends of the scoring table and the pep band sits on the opposite end of the arena floor from the men’s game.  I have no idea why the differences exist but when I mentioned it to Karol, she said she saw no problem with it and it reminded her that she wanted to rearrange the furniture in our living room.  That will teach me to keep my observations to myself.

The women eventually lost this game to Penn State, but remain in the thick of the Big Ten race.

During the game, I saw Karol get that far-off look in her eyes.  She played high school basketball in Manilla, Iowa, and has always regretted that she never had a chance to have a try at the college level.  She had to settle for knocking a few guys on their cans in pick-up games at Wayne State College, a feat that earned her the nickname of the Manilla Mauler.  She also likes to remind me that she once scored more points (42) in one game than I scored in my entire high school career.  However, she does admit that point totals that high were not uncommon in the 6 girls, half court game of her day. I don’t tell her that it doesn’t take that large of a number for somebody to be able to make the same claim.

  

As I think back to my high school days, I will admit that I never thought of my female classmates as athletes.  That sounds stupid and sexist in this day and age, but that is the reality of growing up in Nebraska in the ‘50s when high school boys could participate in sports, but high school girls did not have the same opportunity.  I don’t remember even thinking or talking about the inequity of the situation.

I should have known better because my mother played high school basketball in Smithland, Iowa, in the age when the rules called for a center jump after every basket.  If a team had a tall center, they could control the ball for most of the game, which resulted in some interesting and lopsided scores.

Title IX, which was signed into U.S. law in 1972, brought about significant changes in opportunities for women in athletics.  As near as I can find out, Nebraska high school girls began to have sports available to them in the ‘70s.  The University of Nebraska fielded their first women’s varsity basketball team in 1975.  Across the river in Iowa, even though high school girls had played basketball since the ‘20s, both Iowa State and the University of Iowa did not field varsity women’s teams until 1974.   Wayne State College was actually ahead of other schools by introducing women’s basketball in 1970.

 

To look at the growing popularity of women’s sports today and the skill levels exhibited by the individual players, it is hard to understand why it took so long to bring gender equality to the schools.

And thinking back to my female high school classmates now, I am betting they could have become good athletes if they had just been given the chance.

Back to the present, the Nebraska men play on the road on February 2^nd against Northwestern and return home against Minnesota on February 5th.  The Nebraska women, after winning at Illinois this afternoon, play at Purdue on February 2^nd, and return home against Michigan on February 9^th. 

***The popular Nebraska sports website, www.huskerpedia.com  which was taken down by a court order pending the outcome of a lawsuit, has been replaced by the original owners, and is now called

www.huskerMAX.com  A quick look shows this to be a much better site than the original.

***After watching the Iowa State men upset Kansas on Saturday, I am glad we now play “the other Iowa team”.  Iowa State looked good.

By now you have probably heard or read that Ohio State really did a number on the Nebraska men’s basketball team in Lincoln last night, beating them 45-79.  That is the second huge loss to Ohio State as Nebraska lost on the road 40-71 back on January 3^rd.

With my apologies to Reverend Michael, I didn’t pay as much attention to his sermon this morning as I should have, as I was hoping for some divine guidance on how to write about the game without going on a rant.  I didn’t get much help, but then the Divine Guidance Department may be too busy working on Tim Tebow’s passing game to pay much attention to my problem.  So, I am on my own to try to bring you some of the flavor of the game.

After parking, Karol and I headed off for the Devaney Center.  She stayed with me this time until we rounded the corner of a building and headed into the bitter gusting southeast wind.  That is when the Roadrunner grabbed her ticket and headed off for the arena. Beep.  I only hear one Beep as she is moving too fast for the second one to reach me.  I’m reminded of the old weather adage, “The north end of a south wind is colder than the south end of a north wind”.  It is cold and windy, but a great night for basketball.

As I head up the north slope to the entrance, there are more people than normal walking with me.  The hallways are full and I have to stand in line to buy a program.   It looks like a great crowd has come out to see if the Huskers can match their Wednesday night upset of Indiana by downing 6^th ranked Ohio State.

The crowd size is confirmed when we reach our seats.  There are special promotional prices so we see lots of students, families, and young people.  Football players, coaches, and their wives share seating with students in the east end balcony.  The crowd (11,439) and the noise bring back memories of the glory years in the ‘90s.

The stage is set for another great game and an upset.  But it is very apparent early that this is going to be a tough night.  It is one of the great mysteries of sports why on one night everything goes through the net and the next night nothing will fall, even with uncontested shots.  The Huskers shoot only 25 percent in the first half compared to Ohio State’s 44 percent.  Nebraska can hit only 1 of 9 3-point attempts while Ohio State is knocking down 4 of 11.  Ohio State leads by 20-36 at the half.

Following intermission, things really get out of hand in Ohio State’s favor.  The Buckeye’s are a good team and live up to their national ranking.  Plus they play really tough defense that eventually leads to Nebraska having 27 turnovers, which includes 13 steals by the Buckeyes.  I’m starting to get disgruntled so it is time for a media break.

After my post on the Indiana game, I heard from a high school classmate, David G., now in California.  On January 18^th he had attended a seminar at Stanford University on “Generating Stories from Data”.  You can watch the talk online by going to: http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/   and clicking on the camera icon in the right hand column for January 18.

The talk was about a company, Narrative Science that uses software to write sports stories based on game statistics.  As I start to watch the video I am surprised when the speaker uses an example of the Nebraska-Wisconsin game in Lincoln on December 27^th.  I do some more searching and find that Narrative Science has partnered with the Big Ten Network to produce rapid narratives of games for display on their website. 

Surely, the statistics from the Nebraska-Ohio State game will cause any computer to melt down.  I envision HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey saying, “I’m sorry Dave.  I’m afraid I can’t do that”.   But later I go looking for the software-generated summary anyway.  I eventually find what I think is it on the Big Ten Network website.  It is accurate, well written, and concise.  Great!  I’m just getting my feet wet in this business and I’m already scheduled to be replaced by a computer.  But I don’t see the computer writing anything about the antics of the Roadrunner so maybe there will still be a place for me.

Back to the game, which by this time has really gotten sloppy on Nebraska’s part.  It is getting difficult to watch.  The crowd starts to leave at the 11-minute mark with a major exodus with 9 minutes left.  The football players and their coaches are gone by the 8-minute mark, leaving mostly friends, relatives, and invited guests until the bitter end.

I usually don’t comment on officiating, especially after a loss, because it sounds like sour grapes.  I’ll make an exception this time because Kent Pavelka asked Doc Sadler about it on the post-game radio show.  The question shouldn’t have been asked because coaches cannot comment on officiating, so Doc hemmed and hawed while giving a non-answer.  The officiating didn’t alter the outcome of the game because they were consistent on both ends of the court, but they were certainly not consistent with how other crews have called Big Ten games that I have seen.  This crew called 46 fouls, many of them “strange” while the officials at the previous game only called 27 fouls, with the same amount of contact in my opinion.  Officials are at their best when the crowd doesn’t notice them.  This crowd noticed. But, Ohio State adapted and Nebraska did not.  Nuff said on that subject.

So, where do we all go after a devastating loss like this?  Everybody has to let it go now or the entire season could go in the dumpster in a hurry.  Nebraska goes to Iowa on January 26^th and to Northwestern on February 2nd before returning to Lincoln against Minnesota on February 5^th.  All three of those teams are in the bottom half of the Big Ten standings, so we should at least have a chance.

The best advise I can offer at a time like this is to remember my favorite quote from legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, who said, “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out”.

Go Big Red!    

I started writing about Nebraska men’s basketball games back on January of 2011.  I forget the exact reason why I started but it probably had something to do with Nebraska upsetting 13^th ranked Texas A&M in Lincoln.  I continued to write about the games for the remainder of the 2010-2011 season.  I enjoyed it and several of the people receiving the articles seemed to enjoy them too.  However, I was sending the articles via emails, so I never really knew how many  recipients liked receiving them.  I had to face the possibility that I was actually clogging up people’s mailboxes.  That is the reason for the switch this year to the Blog format.

I was also slow in getting started this year.  I had total joint replacement surgery on my right knee in October, making it a little more difficult to get to the early games.  Plus the team itself was making it a little difficult for me to find anything exciting to write about.  Above all, I wanted to remain a fan and not turn into a disgruntled critic.

Once the Big Ten season started, Karol and I made a real effort to attend the home games.  On the last day of 2011, we were playing Michigan State in an afternoon game.   Karol thinks any temperature less than 72 is an arctic outbreak, so she usually takes her ticket and heads off from the parking lot to the Devaney Center, leaving me to face the bitter cold alone.  However, on this day the temperature in Lincoln eventually reached 52 degrees, so it was relatively mild for a winter day.  I couldn’t help but think back to a New Year’s Eve in 1973-4 when Karol and I had joined friends in downtown Sioux Falls.  The temperature that night eventually fell to 32 below.  That is an 84-degree swing!

But on this day Karol still headed off alone in a light coat, grabbing her ticket as she went by me.  As I was walking along I noticed her coming back.  She got halfway there and decided she needed a heavier coat from the car.  I walked some more and heard her coming around me again, like the Roadrunner, Beep-Beep.  I walked some more and here she comes back at me again.  When she opened the car door to get her coat, she put the ticket on the seat and forgot to pick it up.  In a few minutes she passes me again with her coat and her ticket.  Beep-Beep.  I’m only halfway there and she has gone by me 5 times. This the first time I have ever been lapped on the way to a game.

Eventually I make it to the bottom of the north slope that leads up to the Devaney Center.  My knees feel good but I need an incentive.  I pretend I am headed up the final 60 yards to the top of Mt. Everest.  I can see the Roadrunner up on the peak waving me on.  Just put one foot in front of the other and repeat the process!  I finally summit and find Karol inside the door.  She looks a little winded, but that is understandable since she walked about 10 miles just getting here.

Nebraska eventually drops this game to Michigan State, which becomes part of a four game losing streak to Big Ten teams, before finally winning against Penn State in Lincoln on January 11. Nebraska loses again at Wisconsin on January 15, which brings us to  Wednesday’s game against Indiana.  We are 1-5 in the conference while Indiana is 3-3, but still ranked 11^th nationally.  The Hoosiers are also leading the Big Ten in scoring with 81 points per game.

Nebraska gets off to an early lead, which is never more than 4 during the game.  Indiana pulls ahead and leads by 7 at the half.  I think that Indiana’s players are really good ball handlers and passers, although maybe a little too flashy for their own good.  Indiana’s Tom Pritchard picks up a technical foul for taunting, probably trash talking, after scoring a basket.  The referees have been making an effort to stop taunting in recent seasons.  We saw the same call against a Penn State player in the women’s game in Lincoln on December 15.  I don’t know what words were used in either case, but it was probably stronger than the “your mother wears combat boots” from my youth.

Nebraska picks up one point from a free throw and gets the ball because of the technical.  Pritchard will probably regret that one point for awhile.

In the second half, Indiana pulls ahead by 13 points at the 15:10 mark.  Several times it looks like they will sew up the game.  But the Cornhuskers just keep hanging around and hanging around, eating away at the lead.  I think they are shooting too many 3-point shots (they are eventually 10-30), but they continue to fire away and pull closer.

With 4:19 left we close the gap to 3 points.  Now this is the time that the Nebraska crowd, no matter what the score, starts to leave.  But nobody is leaving.  Maybe it is the cheap tickets or the cheap hot dogs and they feel an obligation to stay, but everybody is on their feet and NOBODY is leaving.  With 11 seconds left, Nebraska’s Diaz is fouled.  We are behind by 1 point.  Diaz steps to the foul line and shoots fast. Whoosh! Score tied.  He fires again.  Whoosh!  We lead by 1.  Hulls brings the ball down the floor for Indiana.  A lay-up attempt hits the bottom of the rim.  A wild scramble for the ball and Hulls takes an off-balance shot by his bench.  The horn sounds.  Shot no good.  Nebraska wins 70-69.  

And then, in a scene resembling Nebraska’s upset win against 2^nd ranked Texas last February 19, the students rush the floor.  The geriatric brigade that guards the floor wisely decides to not stand in their way.  The band continues to play as the arena does wild.  Even Governor Dave across the arena is high-fiving his bride Sally and Democrats and Republicans alike, just like he did after the Texas upset.  Doc Sadler and a few of the players eventually pop out of the floor crowd as they make their way to the broadcast table for the Big Ten Network post-game interviews.  Doc looks like he has been on an all-nighter with his tie over his shoulder, hugging and chest-bumping players, fans, students, and friends.

For whatever the long-term problems may be with this basketball program, tonight belongs to the team and their coach.  They hung in there and pulled it off when things were really looking grim.

It doesn’t get any easier on Saturday, January 21, when 6^th ranked Ohio State comes to Lincoln for a 7 PM game.          

The Roadrunner and I will be there. Beep-Beep.